Apple lashes out at iPhone porn app maker and the EU rules allowing its download

LONDON (AP) — Apple has chided a newly introduced pornography app available in the European Union, warning that the bloc’s digital rules opening the way for third-party app store downloads undermines consumer confidence in the tech giant.

AltStore PAL, an alternative app marketplace made possible under Europe's Digital Markets Act or DMA, this week unveiled the Hot Tub iPhone app, described as an adult content browser.

The digital rulebook forces Big Tech companies to open their services up to more competition, including allowing phone users to download from alternative app stores instead of being limited to the official app stores from Apple and Google, for example.

AltStore PAL said in a social media post on Monday that Hot Tub is “the world’s 1st Apple-approved porn app.”

Apple rejected that description, saying the availability of such an app would “undermine consumer trust and confidence” in its mobile ecosystem.

“Contrary to the false statements made by the marketplace developer, we certainly do not approve of this app and would never offer it in our App Store,” the company said in a statement.

"The truth is that we are required by the European Commission to allow it to be distributed by marketplace operators like AltStore and Epic who may not share our concerns for user safety.”

Under Apple’s rules, apps on rival marketplaces still need to be certified by the company through a “notarization” process. But app makers aren’t allowed to suggest this means Apple gives its endorsement.

AltStore is backed by a grant from Epic Games, which has spent years battling Apple over the way iPhone apps are distributed and the fees for digital transactions that occur within them.

AltStore fired back at Apple, saying the iPhone maker “continues to use safety as a pretext to protect their monopoly power and evade compliance with the DMA.”

Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney also took to social media to blast Apple, saying that on other platforms like Windows, Mac, and Linux, “developers can make and release apps without the platform maker adding junk fees and rendering moral judgments on their decisions.”

Under DMA, Apple had to make changes to its business practices starting last year. In one of the biggest changes, Apple was forced to relax restrictions on its App Store, by allowing people in the 27-nation bloc to download iPhone apps from stores that it did not operate.

Apple has criticized the new regulations, saying they expose Europeans to the specter of more unsavory services that peddle pornography, illegal drugs and other content that it has long prohibited in its App Store.

The company lashed out again in its latest statement, saying it's “deeply concerned about the safety risks that hardcore porn apps of this type create for EU users, especially kids.”

The European Commission, the bloc's executive branch, did not respond to a request for comment.

FILE - This is a display of iPhone 16s in an Apple Store in Pittsburgh on Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday fired off another warning to the government of Cuba as the close ally of Venezuela braces for potential widespread unrest after Nicolás Maduro was deposed as Venezuela's leader.

Cuba, a major beneficiary of Venezuelan oil, has now been cut off from those shipments as U.S. forces continue to seize tankers in an effort to control the production, refining and global distribution of the country's oil products.

Trump said on social media that Cuba long lived off Venezuelan oil and money and had offered security in return, “BUT NOT ANYMORE!”

“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO!” Trump said in the post as he spent the weekend at his home in southern Florida. “I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.” He did not explain what kind of deal.

The Cuban government said 32 of its military personnel were killed during the American operation last weekend that captured Maduro. The personnel from Cuba’s two main security agencies were in Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, as part of an agreement between Cuba and Venezuela.

“Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years,” Trump said Sunday. “Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will.”

Trump also responded to another account’s social media post predicting that his secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will be president of Cuba: “Sounds good to me!” Trump said.

Trump and top administration officials have taken an increasingly aggressive tone toward Cuba, which had been kept economically afloat by Venezuela. Long before Maduro's capture, severe blackouts were sidelining life in Cuba, where people endured long lines at gas stations and supermarkets amid the island’s worst economic crisis in decades.

Trump has said previously that the Cuban economy, battered by years of a U.S. embargo, would slide further with the ouster of Maduro.

“It’s going down,” Trump said of Cuba. “It’s going down for the count.”

A person watches the oil tanker Ocean Mariner, Monrovia, arrive to the bay in Havana, Cuba, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

President Donald Trump attends a meeting with oil executives in the East Room of the White House, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)